Year:
Applicant:
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Email:
jliu@brocku.ca
Project ID:
171003
Approved Project Status:
Project Summary
Comorbid physical illness and depression become more prevalent among seniors. Failure to diagnose and effectively treat depression when it occurs together with somatic illness can significantly affect senior’s quality of life. Susceptibility to multiple pathological processes commonly manifests as cardiovascular disease and disorders of metabolic dysregulation, which may in turn increase the risk of depressive illness. Antidepressant drugs, of themselves, may compound overall deterioration in health status due to metabolic side effects. Given the close association between these clinical variables, it would be of practical interest to understand the correlation between comorbidity profile, depression status, and the use of antidepressant medications. The goal of our proposal is to analyze baseline data from the CLSA for basic descriptive information on comorbid depression and physical illness with special attention to cardiovascular disease, metabolic diseases, and antidepressant use.
Project Findings
With this approved CLSA project we have examined the relationship between depression and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its related risk factors among Canadian older adults. We found that people with self-reported depression are associated with an increased risk of CVD and that this was more common in men and those aged less than 65 years. People with historical clinical depression but currently still depressed are also found at increased risk of having high level of non-HDL cholesterol. Non-HDL cholesterol is a known risk factor of CVD. A risk association pattern was found between difficulty falling asleep and non-HDL cholesterol in females, but not in males.